Scientific Objectives

Scientific Objectives

To support the strategic objectives and to enable the novel SniffPhone to screen gastric cancer and the associated risk conditions under real confounding environments, the partners have determined the following scientific objectives:

• Develop miniaturized breath collector (MBC) that allows collection of breath samples by exhalation from a distance of approximately 5-10 cm (with low respiratory resistance), without bringing the mouth into hermetic contact with the device, to waive the need for disposables and to maximize the chances for ease-of-use and cost-effectiveness.
  An important part of this objective will include a definition and quantification of the various parts of the breath sample (i.e. last 10% volume, first 15% volume, last 8 ml, first 5 ml, etc.), to determine the correct part portion (alveolar breath) of the exhaled breath that is representative of health conditions (NV, UIBK).
• Determine and optimize the typical gastric cancer volatile organic compounds (VOC) profiles, collected by the developed MBC, in diluting indoor/outdoor environment, as a function of different exhalation situations / kinetics, using real-time spectrometry methods, such as PTR-TOF-MS (Proton-transfer-reaction time of flight mass spectrometry).
  MBC operation that will reduce sample dilution with ambient content and that will promote efficient breath transfer to the sensors is to be preferred (UIBK, NV).
• Achieve a highly-efficient fabrication/integration processes for chemiresistors based on molecule-terminated gold nanoparticles (MCNPs) and field effect transistors of a random network of single-walled carbon nanotubes (RN-SWCNT FETs) that has proven ability to detect VOCs that are specific for gastric cancer and even sub-types of gastric cancer (TECH, SIEMENS).
  A complementary part of this sensor production will be the design and application of reliable signal analysis and machine learning to detect, with the minimum number of failures, the presence of cancerous VOCs in breath samples, which exhibit a high chemical complexity (VTT, TECH).
• Test the performance of the newly developed MBC, together with the sensors array and signal analysis, to sense VOCs of gastric cancer and the related pre-cancerous conditions from human exhaled breath (UoL, TECH, VTT). One of the aims in the initial clinical studies will be to explore the effectiveness of the important sensing signals in the presence of real-world confounding signals (UoL, TECH, VTT) and to compare the results to auxiliary lab-track and real-time mass spectrometry techniques (UIBK).
• Create viable protocols for patient single-time screening and continuous screening, based on the results of the validation trial (UoL, VTT, SIEMENS).

The data emerging from this project will provide an extensive metabolite and clinical dataset, which will require high-level bioinformatics (VTT). The medical-related studies will permit the consortium to obtain the necessary feedback required to engineer a viable technology for the continuous monitoring of gastric cancer from exhaled breath (UoL, VTT, UIBK).